Wanås Castle: Historic Estate and Contemporary Art Site
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.5
- Popularity
- Low
- Country
- Sweden
- Primary era
- Modern
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Medieval, Modern
- Civilizations
- Danish, Swedish
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Castle
On this page12 sections
History
Wanås Castle is a historic castle in Sweden, first documented in 1440 as a moated stone building at Wanås. The medieval estate, in the historic province of Scania about 20 kilometres north of Kristianstad, has remained associated with aristocratic families, major rebuilding, and later contemporary art.
Medieval and Danish ownership
The earliest record names the estate Watnaas, a name interpreted as “the ridge by the water” or “that which dominates the water.” In 1440, the property belonged to the squire Eskild Aagesen. From the late fifteenth century into the early sixteenth century, Wanås was held by the Brahe family.
Niels Brahe supported the deposed Danish king Christian II. As a consequence, the estate was confiscated by Frederick I or the Danish Crown and sold to Claus Bille in 1525. Claus Bille transferred Wanås to his son, Sten Bille, in 1553.
War, reconstruction, and eighteenth-century improvements
Swedish troops looted and burned the main building during the Northern Seven Years’ War, a conflict fought from 1563 to 1570 among Scandinavian kingdoms and their allies. Sten Bille began rebuilding the damaged structure around 1566, and his widow, Kirsten Lindenov, continued the work.
Anna Ramel acquired Wanås in 1649. In 1658, the estate was one of the few manors not confiscated by the Swedish Crown after the Treaty of Roskilde. Lena Sofia von Putbus inherited the castle in 1691 and lived there until her death in 1730. She carried out major repairs before the estate passed to her nephew, Count Moritz Ulrik von Putbus, and then to his son, Malte Fredrik von Putbus. Because the Putbus family owned several residences, Wanås received comparatively little attention under their ownership.
Colonel Carl Axel Hugo Hamilton, later governor of Kristianstad County, bought Wanås in 1756. After his death in 1763, his widow Betty Jennings continued to live at the castle and undertook substantial improvements. These included new outbuildings and stables, drainage of the moat, and the development of gardens and ponds.
The Wachtmeister estate
Betty Jennings established Wanås as a fideicommiss, a hereditary estate arrangement that restricted the transfer or division of property and normally passed it to a designated successor. Her grandson, Count Carl Axel Wachtmeister af Johannishus, took possession in 1801. The Wachtmeister family continues to own the estate, although the fideicommiss was dissolved after its last holder, Count Gustaf Wachtmeister af Johannishus, died in 1978. The current owner is Count Carl-Gustaf Wachtmeister.
Carl Axel Wachtmeister af Johannishus made the north entrance the principal entrance and built an orangery. Avenues, the castle pond, an English park, and the orangery were laid out around 1800. The castle acquired its present appearance through rebuilding in 1900, while much of its interior was preserved.
Protection and contemporary art
Wanås Castle was declared an individual listed building, or building monument, in 1980. In 1987, parts of the estate opened as a museum for Swedish and international contemporary art, with an emphasis on site-specific installations, artworks conceived for and materially related to their particular location. The Wanås Utställningar Foundation was established on the initiative of Marika Wachtmeister, who directed it until 2009. Elisabeth Millqvist and Mattias Givell have served as artistic directors since 2010. The sculpture park is known as Wanås Konst, while Wanås Utställningar names the exhibition institution.
Remains
Castle and estate grounds
Moated castle
The complex began with a stone building surrounded by a moat. Its later form incorporates the rebuilding carried out after the destruction of the sixteenth century and the major reconstruction of 1900. The north entrance, converted into the principal entrance by Carl Axel Wachtmeister af Johannishus, is associated with the estate’s early nineteenth-century reorganization.
Orangery, park, and water features
The grounds include the orangery, service buildings, stables, gardens, ponds, avenues, an English park, and the castle pond. The orangery and the arrangement of these landscape features belong to improvements made around 1800. Renovated eighteenth- and nineteenth-century stable and barn buildings now contain exhibition halls, while the castle interiors retain substantial collections of furniture and art. The paintings include works attributed to Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens, Anthony van Dyck, Alexander Roslin, Gustaf Lundberg, and Carl Frederik von Breda.
Contemporary artworks
Permanent park installations
The surrounding park contains more than 40 permanent installations and sculptures. Identified works include Stefan Wewerka’s The Little Bridge (1988), Raffael Rheinsberg’s Black Line (1988), Solveig Sol’s Tera Maximus (1989), Jene Highstein’s Gray Clam (1990), Gunilla Bandolin’s Pyramiden (1990), Gloria Friedmann’s Stigma (1991), Rúrí’s Observatorium (1992), Kari Cavén’s Cow Chapel (1993), Per Kirkeby’s Wanås (1994), Pål Svensson’s Sprungen Ur (1996), Allan McCollum’s Parables (1998), Marina Abramović’s Chair for Animal Spirits (1998), Roxy Paine’s Imposter (1999), Robert Wilson’s A House for Edwin Denby (2000), Dan Graham’s Two Different Anamorphic Surfaces (2000), Antony Gormley’s Together and Apart (2001), Jenny Holzer’s The Wanås Wall (2002), Charlotte Gyllenhammar’s Vertigo (2002), Ann Hamilton’s lignum (2002), Marianne Lindberg De Geer’s I Am Thinking About Myself – Wanås 2003 (2003), Maya Lin’s 11 Minute Line (2004), and Jan Svenungsson’s The Eighth Chimney (2007).
Additional works and exhibition spaces
Ann-Sofi Sidén’s Fideicommissum is a bronze work associated with the park. The estate is also linked with Jacob Dahlgren’s Primary Structure and Yoko Ono’s Wish Tree for Wanås (2011). The renovated stables and barns provide further exhibition halls for art exhibitions and historical presentations, alongside the installations set within the park.
